10,000 hours to success as a game developer

In 2008, Gladwell’s book “Outliers: The Story of Success” repeatedly mentions the “10,000-Hour Rule”, claiming that the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. This equates to 1,250 working days, or 5 working years of focus on your core skill.

Is this how long it took you to get to call yourself a successful? I certainly wonder just how much of anyone’s skill or experience is relevant anymore. I believe only the last 5 years is relevant to what you do as the rest is just old hat and knowledge that can be easily achieved by someone chasing your heels.